Still hungry, but more focused

As I mentioned in that last post I can feel that my body is on the brink, and I’m getting tired. The question is when the fall will come. With nationals next weekend, most people are asking will they peak at the right time, and will everything go well. I’m asking myself can I stay motivated and keep the fatigue from taking me down. As of right now, I think I can and I might actually have something special next weekend. I’m feeling pretty good right now, still beat from this past weekend, but the kick is back in the legs.

I had good starts both days from the second row. I hit those SPDs perfect
both times!

Speaking of last weekend let me take you back. It was the inaugural New Year’s Resolution put on by the guys of the Chicago Cross Cup. I’ve never been down to Illinois for a CCC race, but I hear they are fantastic. Let me tell you, if they are anything like last weekend, I might consider making the trip next year. Good course and well organized. I found the course to be interesting, in a similar fashion to the nationals course. While the two seem completely different, I don’t think they are.  But the two days ended up well for me. Saturday I found myself in a long chase for the lead which I couldn’t overcome. I was able to hold on for 2^nd. Sunday was looking to be much the same as the same riders more or less came to the front, until something unexpected happened. The pit fencing was blow into the leader and knocked him over. Out of the leading group of 4, I was the only one still on my bike after it happened. I opened it up hard. I knew that this was the opportunity to take it. I gassed it hard and got about 30 seconds ahead. But then the gap came back down as yesterday’s winner began to pull me back in.  on the last lap he caught me as we came through the pits for the first time. Then through the last tough mud section, really the last technical section period, I put a foot down and had to run. I gave it everything I had and was right behind him coming out. But his power proved too much. 2^nd again.

I was pretty happy with the placing, but not with the way it happened. I was feeling good, and had it all, but when the time came, I lost focus and made a mistake. A lot of people said that having a pit bike would have helped a lot, and they are right, but even still. I had the win and I lost it. Don’t be fooled, I’m bummed, still confident. But it’s something I need to work on. I had this happen before. I’ve made the right move tactically, or been in the right place, right time and couldn’t come up with the goods. Maybe its fitness, maybe it luck, but I don’t think so. I think its toughness. I think I need to learn to focus less on the pain and the possibility of losing, and more on the win, more on the task at hand.

Making my way up to the lead on the first lap.

I’ll spend this week much like last week though in preparation for nationals. Without any real peak in fitness or anything, I’m just trying to keep things sharp. I’ve been doing 2 days of intensity, but cutting it short, surrounding one day of longer spinning just to get out on the bike. It’s been keeping me sharp without making me tired and putting me over the edge. I’ll be feeling good for next weekend. I’m hoping for something special in the U23 race, and certainly a high finish in collegiate. I’m not wishing, I’m going to make it happen.

Christmas break…well almost

First off, I am a wizard. If you don’t know what that means, you need to be educated better. Ask me sometime. But in all matters of magic, I am the law.

Ok enough of that silliness. Since last post, I’ve been mostly focusing on studying. In the spare time that I have from that I’ve been getting in a ride here and there, but nothing major. And it’s mostly been speed and interval work. That is with the exception of a few weekend ago. I hadn’t been on a long ride in forever so I decided a nice 4 hour trip to New Glarus would be nice. I invited people from the club to go along but the best I got was a few people to ride out to Belleville with me. So I made the rest of the trek to New Glarus and got some food. I then had a nice ride home. The pace overall was actually pretty fast and it didn’t hurt too badly so I felt good about it. But beyond that it’s been short rides and a lot of running.

Then I went home for Christmas. It was really nice to see the family and just do nothing for a few days. It was a nice break. I ate a lot of cookies though. It really hurt my legs; I seriously almost threw up on my warm up on Saturday. But again, it was good to decompress for a few days before I came bad to Madison and started working.

And that brings me to the ‘well almost’ part (use versus mention..I actually learned something this semester!). I can feel that I am tired; I am burned out a little from the year of riding. I’ve been like that since after Jingle CX. Badger X was sort of a weird thing because I felt tired, but raced well. But now I just feel tired. I can tell that I’m on the verge of what I’m beginning to call Wild’e’coyote-ing. If I’m on the clif right now about to be over the edge of tired, Last year around late spring, I was falling off making whistling noises and then poof! But I’m on the edge of that now. So I’m stuck thinking about what I want to do tonight. Should I ride? Or should I stay in and knock some more off my Winter Break to-do list. That’s exactly what this blog is for, because after re-reading that, I’m staying in.

Note if you're ever confused: This blog is basically me talking to myself, except now once in a while I write down what I say.

So that will be it. I’ll take these next few weeks like any smart bike racer would. I’m not going to forget what Cyclocross is to me. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s challenging. But at the end of the day it’s my off season. It’s my time to race, train for how I feel and when I feel like it. If I’m this tired now, I don’t want to imagine what summer will like if I don’t take it easy now.  That’s all for now, hope everyone had/is having a wonderful Holidays. 

2 Weekends, 1 Post

Although I write about the last two weekends together, that is all they share in common. I mean results were polar opposite, I felt completely different, and that was all because my preparation was completely different.

Wizard Cross was held at a local park in the Madison area. The course was brutal. There was a lot of tough climbing and nowhere to hide. I could sum up the course in the following sentence. Go fast, go fast up hill, go fast downhill, repeat until you puke. I think everyone agreed that it was a spirit breaker with so much climbing. However, I certainly disagree with those who didn’t like it. It was a challenging course. And I don’t really care why it’s challenging, I just like challenging courses. But this isn’t really relevant because I was really hung over. I don’t generally like to admit that I drink once in a while, I know I shouldn’t, but I’m in college, it happens. On the flip side I had a lot of fun the night before, but the race was a suffer fest from the gun to the line. But I did take some satisfaction in that I didn’t get lapped. Ended up 9^th in a tough field, which all things considered was pretty good. And I didn’t puke, so that’s good too.

But then the polar opposite happened this past weekend at the Midwest regional race here in Madison. I took it easy Friday night. Had a few beers with the boys and hit the sack early. Woke up and spent the morning watching CX, and preparing for the race. Got there and got ready. I never even thought about how the legs were doing. And on days like that you know they’ll be there for you when you drop the hammer. Suffered pretty hard on laps 1 and 2 but kept within myself and started to work catching the lead group which I had been shelled from. It was looking like a solid 7^th place finish for me until a rider tripped on the stairs and lost 10 seconds allowing me to pass. Then Dave Staab crashed in a tough corner. 5^th place was mine! It was a huge battle to keep the chasers off my wheel, but in the end I held the gap. So it was a nice result and a fat chunk of change.

Then today wasn’t quite as good, which was unfortunate because the legs were totally there to repeat a top 5. I had one of those starts where you just can’t help smiling on the inside. I hit my pedal perfect at the start and had the right gear. I got the acceleration and hit the dirt in 2^nd. But from there it went sour. I seriously didn’t know how to react to such a good start and started freaking out. I think I crashed 4 times on the first 2 laps. It wasn’t until a buddy told me to get it together as he passed me that I took a breath and got back on it. But by this time I was well outside the top 10, we’ll say 12^th-15^th. I pushed a hard but consistent tempo and played the tactics and made passes at good times. After an entire race of clawing back I ended up in 8^th place. Just out of the money. But I had no chance of getting 7^th place so I can’t complain there. Finished the day off with an awesome dinner for two and getting a full nights sleep. Which is good because finals are next week(s).

Another thing I want to mention is the increase in fans! People actually know my name now, and they yell it during the races! The support and enthusiasm is what make racing just that much more fun. Racers always have fun when the crowd enjoys watching. So huge thanks to those on the sidelines cheering.

The next few weeks will be spent training and getting in some good form to have a good showing at Nationals. Pretty excited to race after racing the course, it was superb, and a huge shock from what I thought it might be like. But I’m hoping to have a good showing in the collegiate race and then in the U23 contest.

Jingle CX: Days 2 and 3

Coming into Jingle Cross, I seriously didn’t know what my form would be like and didn’t have any good idea of how I would do. So I was excited about my Friday result, I would have been happy with a top 10, or with a top 5, but getting on the podium was a great feeling. That was all fine, but now I had a good understanding of what I could do and expected something the next day. I made sure to do everything I could to help in my recovery. I took a hot shower, stretched in the shower, massaged my legs, and finally put on compression gear before going to bed early. I got a really good night’s sleep.

Rain was in the forecast for Saturday so I was expecting some muddy condition. Muddy is an understatement. A lot of people were comparing it to USGP Madison which I didn’t race. But USGP didn’t have an insane decent off Mt. Crumpet. But it was extremely similar. It rained all day and the course was very similar. The big difference was we rode up the way we came down Mt. Crumpet the day before and then descended a steep switchback down the back side. This decent was difficult to walk down, let alone run or ride.

I had a similar start to Friday night. The competition was slightly better, as there more people challenging for the top 5 than the day before. I slotted in a few places back than the day before around 7^th or 8^th. I started picking off riders during the first lap. By the end of the lap I could see that not only was Jeff not very far off the front, but Jordan was in sight as well. My legs felt ok, but I was catching the leader so I pushed hard to make contact. I immediately got the feeling that both Jeff and Jordan were taking it easy because once I applied pressure and made up ground, they accelerated and started pulling away.

During lap 2 I almost caught Jeff. He noticed this and put on the gas. Jordan was also seeing the we were making up ground on him and hit it like, well only he can. He was gone once again. But Jeff was still in sight. Plus there were 3 guys about 10 second behind me. I was in a very good position and kept pushing hard. I caught Jeff and immediately left him behind at the start of lap 3 and attention quickly turned to catching Jordan. My big weak point was the climb though. Each time up the hill I tried to ride as much as possible, because once off the bike I was walking. I just couldn’t run to save my life. Jeff was making up a lot of ground there. On the 3^rd lap after I thought he was toast, Jeff and the 3 guys behind him passed me on the way up. I was able to make contact with the group on the way down, but Jeff was gone. I battled with the group on the 4^th lap and was only able to beat one guy.  5^th place, I was hoping for more, but I was fried from all the running. Same story that night, after a quick meal and one beer at the Jingle Party, I hit the hay early, even got some HW done.

Sunday was back to a course similar to Friday. Run up Crumpet, and more long straight sections. One huge deal was that my team director Dave let me borrow his Challenge Limus tubulars. They are challenge’s new all mud tire. To be honest, I felt really good that day, and the race started very similar to the other day. Good start and top 5 in the first few corners. But this time, by the end of lap 1, I was way out front with only Jordan in the lead ahead. I honestly remember thinking to myself, whoa, where am I. Oh, I’m in 2^nd, holy shit. I was going hard and felt good, but those Limus tires were amazing. I almost didn’t notice the mud. I could rail the corners and I felt super confident in the pinwheel. It was kind of cool on the final lap Tim Johnson was watching me race, and I wasn’t going to hard knowing that the gaps were settled so I said “HI TIM JOHNSON!” as I rode past. He cheered back. It was kinda cool.

But I rolled in for an amazing 2^nd place! That really was a good way to end the weekend. I ended up winning all my entry back plus a little extra to pay for food. Amazing weekend, and really need to get me some Challenge Limus tires of my own! I be back next year for sure!

Thanks for reading!

Pictures from Jingle CX

Greg Ferguson Took some great pictures from Jingle Cross that he just sent my way. Thanks to Greg for the photos, hopefully this give you an idea of the mud. These are all from Sunday.

Now I just need to get around to writing about the actual race.

Jingle CX: Friday Night Lights

I got up on Friday morning all excited to go race my bike. Packed up the car and headed to Trevor, WI to the bike lab to meet up with Dave. I had never been to Dave’s house, but it is awesome. Seriously, it’s a bike geek’s paradise in that basement. But anyways, we packed up his car and got on the road to make the 4 hour drive to Iowa City. The drive was nice, we didn’t turn on the radio once and we talked the entire time.

We arrived at the hotel and dropped off a few things and then drove a few extra miles down the road to the race course as the sun began to get lower in the sky. When we arrive the sunlight was fading quickly, but I was able to get 2 laps in while it was still light out. The course was pretty fun. It had this tough off-camber section where there were these muddy ditches you had to go through to get in or out of the section. That was followed by a fly-over that was seriously steep. Finally after that there was Mt. Crumpet. Mt. Crumpet was this terribly steep run up. I had to walk it sometimes it was so steep. Some guys rode it, but I don’t know how. That section of the course was tough, but before and after it everything was technically interesting but not hard on the legs. I got off the course and watched a few more races before my race went off in the Cat 2 men.

I started back row. Hooray! There were only 4 rows so it wasn’t so bad, but still, I knew that good start was important. The start chute was a really open and long road section so it made passing easy. I was able to hit my pedal right away but got caught behind a couple of guys who didn’t and was pushed to the back until I made some key passes around the left to get into 10^th place or so. Then after the opening set of twists and turns 1^st and 2^nd got a little gap. Coming into the off-camber section the leader of our little group took a spill in the mud and held up everyone except me so I was able to slot into 3^rd place. I spent the rest of the first lap catching 2^nd place while 1^st, Jordan Cullen, was way ahead at this point. We rode together for remainder of lap 1 and lap 2. I was riding very fast, and extremely consistent. Jeff, the guy who was with me was riding quickly, and had more punch than I did. He attacked a few times but each time I would claw him back within a minute or so. Finally on the straight away I decided to come around him. I did so on the finish straight and rode at the front until Mt. Crumpet where his ability to run bested me. The sun was now completely down and we were riding under just the lights.

Jeff pushed the pace again and got a gap. I completely gave it everything I had to catch his wheel and came very close through the pinwheel, but wasn’t able to do it. He had a 5 second gap with 2 to go. The gap moved around a little and I almost made contact again with one to go, but just couldn’t do it all the way.  I had to settle for second. It was an awesome race, so much fun. I felt a little beat mentally because I feel like I gave up on the last lap, but in hind sight, I wouldn’t’ have caught him either way.

But the fans were amazing. I really wanted to give them a good show. The crowds were cheering so loud, and all the people I knew were as well. On top of all that, anyone knows that Cyclocross is something of a spectacle. But racing under the light is something entirely different. Besides the obvious fact that its dark and the lighting are different, mentally it’s different too. The spectacle is so much bigger. You really feel like you’re on stage, like you’re being shown off. It helps you go that much harder. Overall, it was a great night.